Top 50 albums you should own: 20-11

20. Fred Neil – Fred Neil

Who said folk music had to be gentle? Fred Neil makes tough folk that’s inspired by the beat generation as much as it’s inspired by Leadbelly, Muddy Waters et al. A contemporary of Dylan’s but never attaining the fame due to a reluctance to play the celebrity game, Neil hit gold with his eponymous LP which features the Nilsson covered ‘Everybody’s Talkin” and his tour-de-force, The Dolphins which is one of the most devastating songs you’re likely to hear. Discover Fred Neil and change your life. Buy Fred Neil!

19. Dr Alimantado – Best Dressed Chicken in Town

The Doc’ claims to be the best dressed chicken, but judging the cover which sees Winston Thompson (as he was known to his mum) in worn out shoes and his flies undone. However, on first listening to the LP, the ferocious dubs and callouts that echo over reggae classics (like Poison Flour, his version of Horace Andy’s Man Next Door) are liable to leave the listener believing just about anything he says. Johnny Rotten was a huge fan, and so should you. You don’t know reggae unless you know this. Buy it!

18. Os Mutantes – Os Mutantes

For those wanting to get into Tropicalia, the first Mutantes LP is difficult to top. Featuring the biggest clutch of famous Mutantes tunes, such as Panis Et Circensis, A Minha Menina, and Bat Macumba, the debut cut features an inventiveness that has seldom been matched. The marriage of psychedelia, Beatle-esque pop and bossa nova rhythms leaves the listener dizzy and joyous. Once you hear A Minha Menina, with carnival drums and overloaded fuzz guitar, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Buy it!

17. The Byrds – The Notorious Bryd Brothers

When choosing a Byrd LP, most either go for the folk/psych era albums of Fifth Dimension or Turn! Turn! Turn! or the country masterpiece of Sweetheart of the Rodeo. One album in particular is often and unfairly overlooked, and that is the amazing Notorious Byrd Brothers. It features some of the most breathtaking work of the group who happened to be slowly fall to bits through drugs and bad attitudes. However trouble the Byrd camp was, Draft Morning is one of the most blissed out bits of music you’ll ever hear along with the fantastic Tribal Gathering which swaggers along with laid back cool. An impressive LP that everyone needs to hear. Triad in the extras on the remaster is great too! Buy!

16. The Hollies – Evolution

The Hollies were one of the biggest groups in Britain throughout the sixties, but for some reason, their work is overlooked in favour of rubbish outfits like The Small Faces. When the drugs and paisley kicked in, The Hollies created a pair of incredible LPs; Butterfly and Evolution. Of the two, the later is the stronger work, featuring fuzz guitar, freakbeat stompers and tender acoustic numbers. Of the latter, Stop Right There is one of your writers favourite tunes ever recorded. A masterpiece and the last great thing that Graham Nash did before bunking off to CSN. Buy it!

15. Arborea – Wayfaring Summer

The PopJunkie album of the year. This LP is a magnificent piece of folk/country that will leave you breathless and hitting the play button again and again. A beguiling and devastating album from start to finish with so many stand-out moments that it’s hard to pick out a single one. If pushed, Alligator features one of the sassiest and sexiest vocal performances from the obscenely talented Shanti. Alongside her partner, Buck, they create a magical underworld which draws you in and leaves you completely annihilated. Rivers and Rapids is easily as achingly gorgeous as anything Nick Drake ever recorded. Buy this album. It’ll be getting sold for big money in ten years time. Buy it

14. Beau Brummels – Triangle

Double up with Bradley’s Barn, Triangle by the Beau Brummels is some of the finest body of work from one writers’ hand. Sal Valentino is impossibly talented and with Triangle, created an LP as rich in texture and incredible songs as Forever Changes which has achieved mass cult status. Mixing country, folk and psychedelia, the Brummels effortlessly made an LP that sounds like a classic, and more importantly, sounds timeless. Keeper of Time and Painter of Women sound like million sellers, and quite why they didn’t is an absolute mystery to me. Buy it.

13. Ivor Cutler – Jammy Smears

This jaw dropping album is a magpie of sorts. Drawing on various surrealist writers, folk music and something completely Cutler’s own. Featuring wry vignettes about ‘Life in a Scotch Sitting Room’ and oddball tales about grazing your knee and chatting to birds who live in hedgerows, Cutler creates a bizarre world that once immersed in is impossible to leave. Folkies love him, the punks love him and so should you. This is a sonic novel that will blow your mind… and made you laugh ’til you puke. Buy it now!

12. The Koobas – The Koobas

This scouse outfit toured with The Beatles and created one solitary LP that knocks most other Brit-psych LPs into a cocked hat. As soulful as anything you’re likely to hear with songs strong enough to deliver a knock out punch. Barricades is a joyous and fierce slab of English Freakbeat that going to leave you winded on your knees. Gold Leaf Tree is a beautiful acid soaked ballad that deserved a wider audience than attained in the groups short life. It’s been said that this album lacks focus and the like… but anyone saying that doesn’t deserve ears. This is a superb masterpiece worthy of greater popularity and still sounds as fresh as a daisy today. Buy it now!

11.The Electric Prunes – Underground

A bona-fide psychedelic/garage punk gem that every house should own. After the smash hit of I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night from their debut cut, the Prunes’ were afforded the fortune of some control over their follow-up and by the sounds of things, it’s something that should have been given to them for the rest of their careers. From The Great Banana Hoax to Captain Glory, the LP is full of gut busting garage/psych. Hideaway is marks the high point in the Prunes’ career as well as the wonderful ‘Wind Up Toys’. A tour-de-force that no decent record collection should be without. Buy Buy!

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Hi, I only care that I have my mother proud of me. Because I know that my father hates me so I really don’t care if he is proud of me or not. I have tryed to walk the strait and narrow path and faltered afew time. But, at the end of the day I would like to know that my Mother was proud I was her son
I am sorry if it to you not interestingly.

Hi, I only care that I have my mother proud of me. Because I know that my father hates me so I really don’t care if he is proud of me or not. I have tryed to walk the strait and narrow path and faltered afew time. But, at the end of the day I would like to know that my Mother was proud I was her son
I am sorry if it to you not interestingly.